Skin Games

I’m 62 years old now and it occurred to me that there is a major difference between men and women. I know that thought probably comes as a shock to most of you. THe difference I thought of was this.

The average 60 yr old man in North America has spent about 3 hour of his life in caring fro his skin. This includes all aspects of that care as well as even thinking about it. The bulk of that time was spent putting on sun tan lotion of some sort to try and avoid sunburn.

The average 60 yr old woman on the other hand has spent about 3 years of her life trying to care for her skin. This includes moisturizing, defoliating, foliating, peeling, pruning and otherwise gardening the pelt with an array of drugs, oils, pro-biotics, pre-biotics, and botox.

The cost for men is in the range of a few bucks up to maybe a hundred and the cost for women is in the thousands.

It also occurred to me that there really isn’t that great a difference in the general quality of the skin in all these 60 yr olds which leads me to one conclusion.

The women of North America must have significantly worse skin than the men if it takes all this effort and an entire industry to keep them looking approximately the same as their men.

About 20 years ago I got sucked into a so-called free makeover, and left with a bag full of shit like toners and cleansers and moisturizers and stuff which cost about $150, along with a new custom skin-care regime. I had to do some things in the morning and other things before bed and other things after my shower. It was complicated and time-consuming and it didn’t seem to make any noticeable difference so I lapsed after about a week. Now I just try to moisturize my face every day.

The most interesting thing about skin care regimes is the language. They really speak to women, who traditionally take care of others and rarely get enough sleep or time to themselves. Words like: nourish, revitalize, rejuvenate. That’s what women REALLY want. Skin care products are just a proxy for it.